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Three boys stand in the slum area of the Grand Yoff neighbourhood of Dakar,. ©UNICEF HQ/2015
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The Senegal Urban Dakar 2015-16 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is one of the first MICS surveys to sample a capital city alone and the first of its kind in francophone Africa. MICS is used by countries to obtain up-to-date information on the situation of children and women. In Dakar it will also serve the unique purpose of contributing to the development of the country’s urban data collection systems and will provide a baseline for policy and programming targeting vulnerable urban communities.
By 2030—the finish line of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), cities are projected to house 60% of the global population and the proportion of children living in cities will rise rapidly in coming years. The resulting strain on social services and infrastructure hits at-risk children the hardest such as those living on the street or in informal settlements. While children living in urban areas often fare well in comparison to their rural peers, advantages brought by quality services and resources aren’t distributed evenly.
Dakar is home to almost a quarter of the population of Senegal and is the most densely populated city in the country with 5,735 inhabitants per km². An understanding of at-risk children living in cities such as Dakar will be crucial to meeting the SDGs. Data from MICS can help to anticipate how the challenges brought on by rapid urbanisation will impact children, especially the most disadvantaged, while providing internationally comparable data to measure progress towards the Global Goals.
The Key Findings Report and Final Report can be downloaded on the surveys page of our website. Datasets will be released shortly.